Coltsfoot

COLTSFOOT, Tussilago Farfara L., a perennial herbaceous plant of the composite family. It grows throughout Europe, in northern and central Asia, often forming continuous thickets, on clayey soil by riverbanks, cliffs, and ravines. It blooms early in spring. The leaves used in medicine (Folia Farfarae, FU), which develop after the plant has flowered, are long-stalked, larger than a palm, oval-round, deeply cordate, and woolly-pubescent underneath. Dried leaves have a bitter, slightly astringent taste and no odor. Constituent parts: mucus, tannin, which turns green with FeC₃, and an uninvestigated glucoside of a strongly bitter taste. As an admixture, leaves similar to those of Petasites officinalis Moench, which have no medicinal value and differ from Coltsfoot in that they are not oval-round but triangular-cordate, are sometimes encountered. Coltsfoot leaves are used as a decoction for coughs; they are part of the composition of cough tea (FUP). Bodard and Deschamps recommended Coltsfoot as a specific for scrofula. In folk medicine, as indicated by the various names of this plant depending on the locality, Coltsfoot is applied externally for boils (from the Russian word for boil), for tumors (tumor leaves), and internally for scrofula, asthma, and dropsy. Fresh leaves are applied with the woolly side to the head for headache and also to wounds. In our medical practice it is applied almost not at all in recent times, but it has export significance.